friendship pasta

Last week, the men and the kids took off for HP 7.2. I have a whole soapbox speech about this series being turned into movies when kids were reading the books from which I'll spare you, but needless to say I chose not to go. Mrs. Bestfriend didn't go either because she's just not that into it. For dinner, we created a blue cheese pasta recipe using mushrooms and onions, and I will say it was pretty darned good. While looking through my kitchen to see what I could make for our party tonight, it hit me: summer squash.

Here's the recipe, without pictures because I'm not Pioneer Woman or a food blogger.

1 lb of cooked pasta, your choice

3 decent sized summer squash*, diced into 1" squares
1/2 an onion, diced  (I used a bunch of green onions*, because that is what I had... you could use garlic if that was your preference too)
1 green pepper* (again, going with what I had in front of me. Skip the pepper, use a hot pepper, whatever sounds good to you.)
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 oz blue cheese
2 oz feta cheese (or parmesan)

heat some EVOO in a pan and saute your onion and pepper. (If I'd had any mushrooms in the house, I'd have used them and added them here.) When those are softened, add the summer squash and cook for about 15 minutes, letting them soften up nicely. I covered the pan and turned it low so they'd simmer and not burn. When you start to run low on moisture, add about 2 tbls butter. When the veggies look the way you like them (I like mine pretty broken down) add the cream and cheeses, stir, and pour over your pasta. If it was winter, I'd probably then pour it all into a casserole dish and bake it, maybe with some break crumbs on top, but it's just fine without that last step. We have some vegetarians joining us tonight, so I left out the meat, but you could totally add chicken or shrimp as well. Give it a try and let me know what you think :)

*The veggies are from our Thurston Family Farm CSA. Have I mentioned I LOVE my weekly baskets?

{this moment}

A weekend ritual from my friend Wendy, who got it from SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

{this *working* moment}

A weekend ritual from my friend Wendy, who got it from SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

(No words are over-rated... you're looking at the above ground pool site and the brick oven, behind the fire pit. Life is good around here, for sure!)

The Backbone of the World

Glacier was incredible. Beautiful. From the beginning, it was destined to feel like home to me: we followed Rt 2 into East Glacier, and just knowing I could follow that road (albeit for days and days) and end up at home helped me relax and enjoy being away. The Glacier Park Hotel is also on the Blackfeet Reservation, which again, just makes me happy. I'm not Native American, nor do I have any Native stories (that I know of) in our family history. But I am an embarrassed European descendant, who hates to think about how horribly we treated the people who lived here first, and giving them some of my money... well, it's something anyway.

We got into Glacier on Monday, late in the day. It's about a 5 hour trip from Dr. Sister's house. The drive was really pretty easy-- well maintained roads all the way, with very little traffic. We could see the mountains to the left of us from about Helena on. (Speaking of mountains and Helena, the Sleeping Giant is pretty cool-- think Old Man in the Mountain, but a lot bigger.) Every time we go to Montana (which is looking like an biennial gig) I'm overwhelmed by what Lewis and Clark did. Hey honey, I'm heading out for the Pacific... see you in a few years! Holy Hannah... I would have turned around about 10 miles into the journey. We passed by the only spot of violence on their trip, when Lewis and his men camped with some Blackfeet for the night and things turned nasty (some say unpaid gambling debts were involved, others say booze... I'm pretty sure, at least, it wasn't over a woman...) and 2 Blackfeet were killed. Lewis and his men beat feet and traveled something like 3 days, day and night, before camping again for fear of retrobution. I say again, I cannot even imagine...

Anyhow, Tuesday was our Red Bus tour. Because of the record snowfall last winter, the Going to the Sun road, which connects East Glacier and West Glacier, was still buried under 12+/- feet of snow, so our route was mixed up a bit. We went to Two Medicine, Many Glacier, and then into St. Mary as far as we could get on the Going to the Sun before the road was closed. One trip is certainly not enough to really experience this place. If we weren't 100% sure we'd be visiting this park again before our tour, we were by the time we returned. Between the evidence of global climate change being right in front of you, the sheer beauty of the mountains and lakes, and the small crowds, this is certainly our kind of park. If anyone is up for a visit in summer 2013, let us know. I know I'm considering taking the train into West Glacier next time, and trying to get to Logan Pass from that side...


PS-- I forgot to create a contest with this one, so leave a comment, and I'll send you a picture. Easy Peasy!

upcoming posts

I owe you a Glacier post and a trip home post, and maybe a I'll-go-anywhere-with-WB-but-hate-going-alone one. And probably a George RR Martin one, too. I promise I'll get to them as soon as I've read my book club book and gotten our teeth taken care of. Promise.

{this moment}

A weekend ritual from my friend Wendy, who got it from SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

{this *late* moment}

A weekend ritual from my friend Wendy, who got it from SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.